Re: [gardeners] Re: Mycorrhiza questions...
Liz Albrook (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 19 Oct 1998 09:00:29 +0000
Margaret Lauterbach <gardeners@globalgarden.com> wrote:
> I don't think we all have access to a botanist. At least I don't.
> What did yours say? Margaret
Mine said that mycorrhiza are specific to species of plants.
For example, Don in CA is selling the fungi for use with tomatoes --
he has a strain that will grow and work with tomatoes. It may grow
and work with a few other plants, too. But there is no general
purpose mycorrhiza that is the answer to everyone's problems or that
will work with every plant. The last time I read Don's postings they
were testing their strain on many plants but it was sort of a shotgun
type approach -- there's no way to predict which plants will form a
symbiotic relationship with a particular strain.
I have real questions about the usefulness of using any form of these
fungi in an organic garden such as yours -- one in which tomatoes are
planted in the same location year after year. My own anecdotal
experience is that tomatoes replanted year after year in the same
soil grow exceptionally well. My guess is that part of that result
comes from soil microbes that become established and flourish year
after year -- not necessarily just a single type of fungus but a
balance of many types of organisms.
Liz